How far have you driven on a flat tire ?

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MDW once drove our '66 bug 40 miles with a blown rear tire. Ive driven 10 miles or better on a flat. MDW has strict orders to drive the car to a place of safety before dealing with it. Call me or AAA from a safe place. Flats are no big deal provided you're not doing it in the break down lane or sticking out on a curve. I've seen plenty of flats within a mile or 2 of the next exit , often with a gas station. or at least a place to park.
 
My dad was driving on the hwy when he heard a thump, thump noise. Pulls off at the next exit and into a parking lot where a restaurant was under construction. A construction worker comes out and changes his tire for him. Very nice guy.

I remember driving on the hwy when I ran over a small rubber strap that has two metal hooks on each end. I think they hold down trailer tarps on big rigs. The hook went into the tire and was clanking around in the wheel well. I pulled off immediately, an exit was close by. The tire was losing air fast and still hissing. Within seconds, completely flat. Changed the tire and drove a mile to fill up the spare. Had a used tire(Turanza) mounted at one of those inner city places.
 
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I haven't driven a car with a flat tire, but I did ride my quad with a flat rear tire about 5 miles, it had a nail in it.

I had a tire plug kit but lost the plugs, only had the tools. I rolled up some black Gorilla tape and made a plug and it held like that for 5 years.

This is a good question for GHT, or now currently "plaguef" on here.
 
I'm not stopping anywhere unsafe or on the side of the road/freeway. A few years ago I got rear ended and pushed into another car because a woman decided to stop in the middle of the freeway for a flat tire.

I see people on the side of the highway changing tires with people flying by at 70, they're crazy!

Besides with TPMS and regular maintenance, a flat while driving should be pretty much non-existent.
 
I was always concerned that the tire would come apart and ruin the rim or flop around and scratch up the paint
 
MDW? Does that refer to your wife? Just call her your wife. These acronyms are a disservice to anyone who reads them.
 
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
MDW? Does that refer to your wife? Just call her your wife. These acronyms are a disservice to anyone who reads them.


+1...MDW means Memorial Day Weekend to me...and most of the internet.

My Dear Wife? Miss Daisy Wilcox? Mud Daily Wahoo?


I've also driven far enough to a safe place to change it - still had air in it when I stopped.
 
Originally Posted By: Tdbo
Far enough to get to a safe spot to change it.


Same here. Old enough to know how to change a flat.

"Not safe to stop and change", so keep going? How safe is it to drive @ 10mph on the shoulder of the highway with a disintegrated tire while drivers distracted by your spectacle wiz by?
 
Originally Posted By: ammolab
Originally Posted By: Tdbo
Far enough to get to a safe spot to change it.


Same here. Old enough to know how to change a flat.

"Not safe to stop and change", so keep going? How safe is it to drive @ 10mph on the shoulder of the highway with a disintegrated tire while drivers distracted by your spectacle wiz by?
A lot safer to drive slow on the shoulder to get off the freeway for 30 seconds than to sit on the side of the freeway for 30 minutes changing it.

I don't care what a new wheel costs for my car, if I have a flat, I'm driving on it flat to get to somewhere safe to change it.
 
However far I had to, to safely change the tire. It's always a good idea to pull over immediately and have a look to assess whether you want to drive on the carcass; sometimes it's just out of shape to the point where it's not a good idea to continue.

You need to go slow, even though it thumps and rides rougher, because it's heat you are trying to avoid.

Now, if I was driving a vehicle with valuable alloy wheels, I'd probably limit the driving much more than if I was running steel wheels, which are cheap to replace. Also a rough tire can cause damage to the inside of the wheel well, so make sure that's not happening.
 
About 10 miles. Picked up a nail in LR, then went on a highway on-ramp and it felt squirrely. Was my 92 cutlass ciera which didn't transmit a whole lot of goings-on to the driver. Considered my possibilities then figured I should get off on the next exit and check things out, do a walk-around at a Cumberland Farms. Totally flat, but not smoking or anything. Unmounted tire was full of dust. My spare tire was flat-ish but someone just put quarters in the air machine so I ran right over after he finished. Sam's Club got me another under road hazard for like $12. Mint!
 
I rode my motorcycle about 5 miles home on a flat rear tire. That was an exercise in frustration, as I was trying to keep the tire under the rim, so I went as slow as possible in first gear. Determination!
 
About 30 or so years ago there was a mini-stock market crash. Sam Walton, founder of the real Walmart was asked about his net worth dropping from 5 billion to 4. He said it was a hit for sure but it wasn't anything scary and dangerous like having a flat tire on a dark rainy night on the freeway.

No matter what, drive to a very safe place. Then figure out what to do. Your life or the lives of your passengers is not worth a tire or even a fancy wheel, or a fender flare or a front spoiler or any other expendable stuff. Stopping in the flow of traffic or getting out of the vehicle like that can cause you to get fatally injured or seriously killed. And if you don't get killed when you get hit by another car it really hurts and takes a long time to heal and might cost more than your dream car and you'll still have nothing to drive.
 
Originally Posted By: Kuato
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
MDW? Does that refer to your wife? Just call her your wife. These acronyms are a disservice to anyone who reads them.


+1...MDW means Memorial Day Weekend to me...and most of the internet.

My Dear Wife? Miss Daisy Wilcox? Mud Daily Wahoo?


I've also driven far enough to a safe place to change it - still had air in it when I stopped.

oh, memorial day weekend. I thought it was one of those pansy references to a spouse that some people do on the internet. Like "DH" which apparently means "dear husband" - that's an argument for another day though.

I've driven one block on a flat tire before. The car was very smooth and I didn't realize it until I noticed the pulling. I was just 16 at the time.
 
I drove around on one for, geez, I dunno. Two weeks? Almost a month? Every time I got in the car and drove off, I'd remember, "Oh, yeah. The tire." Then I'd get back home and it was, "I better fix that before I drive again." Then I'd get drunk and/or pop pills and forget about it. That pattern was duplicated with many other problems and issues with my life. Bad, bad times.
 
The only time I have had to was maybe a quarter mile or so. It was after 10:00 PM and raining when something on the side of the road sliced one of my tires open, and I lost all air within maybe a couple hundred feet. The truck was squirrelly to drive, but thankfully it was in a suburban/residential area with light traffic and low speeds. I made it to a gas station where I changed the tire. The wheel I drove on with the flat was fine after replacing the tire (steel wheel, the tires have a lot of sidewall too). Every other tire event, and there have been many (Birmingham), has been slow enough to at least drive my destination.
 
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